


Harsh Truths

by ghoullly



Category: Gorillaz
Genre: Body Horror, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-14 06:06:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16034531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghoullly/pseuds/ghoullly
Summary: It was hard to believe, but there he was, tied to the yak and directly in front of her.Shock made her snap a picture as if seeing the image on the screen of her phone would confirm that he was really there.





	Harsh Truths

**Author's Note:**

> hoo it's been a minute @ gorillaz fandom sorry. uni has been keeping me busy on top of work and my free time is spent tryin to beat cuphead with my brother asdasfasdcdvfk
> 
> i listened to on melancholy hill and started missin my dad so i wrote this quick thing as a way to vent/also portray what i think would be interesting to happen next friday. this is probably the quickest oneshot i've ever written bc it was written in an hour and a half in one sitting. i'm such a perfectionist that never happens lmao there's at least 2 sittings and at least 8 pages most times
> 
> this wasn't proofread so pardon my mistakes. the next chapter of gp will be up super super soon; i have to think of where to go with it. all the raven masks at the halloween stores are making me miss my birb dad
> 
> enjoy!! xx

Noodle lowered her phone, hands trembling as she started toward the yak.

It didn’t seem real. It couldn’t have been.

But there she was, and there he was, and it was like time had stopped.

Her breath caught in her throat as the snow crunched under her feet; she felt like she was made of lead. Tears threatened to prick her eyes but she fought them back. She had said that she knew he was alive, but she never truly did. Part of her thought she lost him forever. 

But there he was. Her dad was right there, buried underneath the boho blankets and aging face hidden inside the thick fur of the yak. His body laid half off of the beast, wrists and ankles tied to the underbelly for whatever reason, but Noodle wasn’t going to ask questions right now. She just had to focus on getting him awake.

She grew closer and the yak turned its head, huffing out a plume of clouded breath from the cold, and the sudden movement made the girl flinch. Its eyes almost seemed to glow red when they stared at her head-on, but she hardly cared, hyperfocused on her father.

Drawing close, the girl stopped only a foot or two away from him, watching as the blankets rose and fell as he breathed, and a smile crept across her face like she was a child. 

He was okay. He was alive.

Noodle reached out to slide a hand onto the side of his head to drink in the great news before she set him free. She brought her palm to his cheek so she could feel the warmth of the stubbly skin there, just as it was when he’d cuddle her when she’d had nightmares as a little girl.

The green swollen skin was ice cold.

Noodle audibly gasped and reeled quickly, but not quick enough. 

Murdoc’s hand broke free from the ropes and had ahold of Noodle’s wrist before she even knew what was happening, twisting it backwards roughly. The woman let out a yell and tried to unsheath her katana with her other hand, but she was completely flipped in a fraction of a second and Murdoc was off of the yak, constraining her hand behind her back and keeping an iron grip around her neck. Noodle choked, trying to writhe out of his hold, but Murdoc was too strong, his thumb shoving hard against her windpipe and threatening to crush it. She could tell that he was holding back.

_ “What... the f-fuck?”  _ She grunted, gasping and croaking and fighting for air, but it was with no success. Her beloved dad--the same one who would fix her chocolate chip pancakes at 11 pm if she got hungry even if Russel told her no sweets past 7--only gave her enough leverage to be able to maintain consciousness. Tears left warm streaks down her cold face from the pain, bruises undoubtedly starting to form on her dainty skin.

“How gullible you are!” She heard a voice behind her cackle, but she couldn’t see them. It was an old voice that was as light as paper; almost as if they spoke any quieter, they’d blow away in the wind.

Something shifted and pulsated grossly against her back and instinct made her jerk away, but Murdoc jerked her back into place, hard enough that her neck cracked against the swift movement. Noodle tried desperately to even graze her fingertips against her sheath, but she was held too far away. Unless he let up, she’d never get to it.

“You’re famous in the underworld, you know,” the voice teased, and Murdoc pulled Noodle up by the neck, strapping his other arm across her body to hold her in place. She wormed against him with no success. “No demon within their right mind would fuck with you. Famous in the human world for... useless talents, but famous to us for not only your ability to slay effortlessly, but because Faustus was your father as well.” 

El Mierda kicked powdery snow aside, grinning calmly at the woman as colors began to spackle her vision, the only air she was able to get painfully thin from the altitude. 

“Any brood raised by such a cunning, despicable man wouldn’t be one to mess with. If Faust was able to dodge Lucifer himself for this long and even Mephistopheles once he was sent after him, who knew what secrets he’d whisper at night to the precious, innocent little girl he’d adopted. Who knew what grotesqueries and gimmicks and grimoires she’d be exposed to in the form of bedtime stories; by the time she reached adulthood, who knew what she’d be capable of?”

The old man rolled his eyes, casual with the woman as if death weren’t on the horizon. “But he named her fucking  _ ‘Noodle’ _ . What a joke. And you, this all-powerful demon hunter, bought the facade of a health spa. Please.” El Mierda shrugged. “Daddy gassed you up too much, didn’t he?”

_ “What did you do to him?!”  _ Noodle demanded through rattled breath, trying to shove against Murdoc’s body to unbalance him, but the man grit his teeth and squeezed even harder around her neck; this weakened her immediately. She felt like a literal chicken as he held her there like that, her hand childishly searching for his to place on top. It was sickeningly ironic; he was the one hurting her, yet she sought his comfort anyway. Maybe she really was a joke.

El Mierda looked confused, and something about the world around Noodle began to melt, her knees falling to jelly almost as if she knew what was coming. “Me? I did nothing. He did it to himself.”

Before she could react, Murdoc’s head fell hard against her shoulder, limp and motionless. The rest of his body grew slack too, but the girl was too terrified to move. Her dad’s jaw fell open and muggy water began to expel from his mouth, Noodle screaming and trying to break away, forced to watch in horror as he clawed at his own neck, glazed eyes bulging and scared as the water continued to pour out of every orifice in his head. It spilled out of his nostrils, his tear ducts, his ears; Noodle--at a loss of what else to do--began to sob as she saw her daddy drown right in front of her, her heart breaking as she began to realize that her worst fears were true. The man before her that had taken her to her first pride, and that had played Pokemon with her the whole day she was sick with the flu when she was 13, and that had bawled like a baby alongside her when she found herself on his doorstep again after searching the sea for him for years... that man before her was a carbon copy. A fake. He had been dead since the 31st.

She was dizzy as she struggled to take in normal amounts of air again, blubbering like a child as she watched the copy dissolve into muggy water itself, leaving nothing but a gross brown splatter left atop the snow where he had stood moments before. She wanted nothing more than to see him again--even just the fake--so she could throw her arms around him and cry into his neck about how much she loved and missed him. Things were so weird without him around and she’d never have him again. 

Noodle cried and her nose ran down her frozen face, but she didn’t even care. El Mierda gave her a fake look of pity.

“Poor baby,” he cooed, “Didn’t get to say goodbye, did you?”

“You’re a monster,” she reached for her sword, but something wrapped around her wrist and pulled her back so hard her feet were taken out from under her, smacking her head against the ice underneath the snow. The same ropes that had been tied around the fake yak--the Trojan horse--tightened itself around it, anchored within the ground. Mierda walked towards her, his eyes falling bleak.

_ “I never loved you anyway,”  _ he spat, his voice a perfect imitation of Murdoc’s, and Noodle screamed in anger, thrashing against the constraint and reaching for the sword again; in the chaos, her phone had fallen out of her pocket and into the snow.

_ “Stop! Stop it!”  _ Noodle screeched, every bone in her body aching,  _ “He would never! I know you’re a fake! It’s pointless!” _

_ “You were nothing more than a pawn. A stepping stone to my own success.”  _ El Mierda bent down and leant over the woman, fingers gripping around her neck.  _ “I’m done with you.” _

Noodle quickly realized that there was no way to escape.  _ “Stop!” _

“I only wanted his soul at first, but his is lost to the waters. Yours will do just fine,” El Mierda explained, and the woman felt something strange tug at her heart, nearly pulling it into her throat.

“Siri!”

“I’ll have fun getting ahold of the others. Just for shits and giggles. I’ve already gotten a grip on your dear big brother.”

_ “Siri! Call Ace!” _

Noodle’s voice caught as her head fell back, El Mierda slowly coaxing the warmth out of her chest just by holding his hand there. She saw things before her eyes that she hadn’t thought about in years; the Apollo performance, boarding the cruise ship, Christmases and Halloweens and Easters. Birthdays, both hers and theirs. Plenty of reunions. Lots of fights. More tears and hugs and kisses on cheeks and the tops of heads. ‘I hate you’s and ‘I love you’s and apologies. The smell of colognes and butterscotches and linens. Home.

She heard the phone ring softly within the snow. Her heart fell when it clicked to voicemail after a few tries; Ace wouldn’t have done that to her, so it had to have been the altitude. Signal failure.

His voicemail began and El Mierda pulled the warmth up her throat, screams stifling and sobs stalling, the woman losing control over herself and feeling herself bow up against Mierda’s lull.

_ “Ace!” _

_ “Aaaaaaace!” _

The call failed and the girl--infamous demon slayer, Faustus’ daughter, Noodle--felt her head crack back onto the ice just as her vision went white.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading xx


End file.
